Her sons play sports. Her husband is a logger. Her daughter is an active pre-teen. For Mae Ola Westbrook, this active family means big meals, every day.
Cooking has been part of her life since she was a young girl growing up in Lamar County.
“I learned to cook when I was about nine years old,” Westbrook said. “I was the oldest girl (one older brother) of seven children. My mother got real sick and I had to cook. I learned to cook on a wood cook stove. It really got hot in the summer. I wouldn’t want to do that now.”
Of all the chores she had to do, cooking was her favorite.
“I did enjoy cooking,” she said. “Of the things I did for my mother, that was the thing I enjoyed the most of all. I followed my mother around the kitchen and learned from her. I learned without recipes.”
Westbrook did have other chores to do as a child being reared on a farm.
“My dad plowed with a mule. We had to put out guano (fertilizer), plant, hoe – do all the things to help make a crop. We chopped and picked cotton and pulled com. We raised hogs and had a cow. We had a garden and raised most of our food.
“It was a wonderful life. It was hard, but we had a mother and dad to teach us right from wrong,” Westbrook said.
“I learned to iron with an oldfashioned iron. We washed clothes on a rub-board after boiling in an iron washpot. We rinsed in big tubs. I didn’t know what a washing machine was.”
Westbrook’s experiences growing up prepared her for rearing her own family. She has seven children: Donnell, Gladys, Gloria, Anthony, Patrick, Chris and Dianna. She lost a son, O’Neal, in an accident.
Her husband, Billy, logs with Randy Hester. Her three sons, still at home, play football and basketball and are very active. They come home with big appetites and her cooking through the years has “spoiled” them. They now expect the large meals.
“I have large meals with the family I have” she says with a smile. “If I’m fixing beans, I use a whole pack and make a large pan of cornbread. My grandchildren also come over sometimes and then I have to add a little extra. I have to have a solid meal. When I come in from work, I fix a vegetable, meat, cornbread and tea. They don’t know anything about sandwiches.”
Her children admit they expect the large meals.
“Shoot, yeah, I expect her to cook, all the time,” said Chris Westbrook.
Chris, a recent Red Bay graduate, will attend Samford University on an athletic scholarship this fall. Even though he prefers his mother’s cooking, he has learned from her and expects to do some of his own cooking this fall.
“I’ve learned to cook from her. I can make cornbread and any kind of cookie. Of course, I will miss her cooking this fall,” Chris said. “I’m taking an electric skillet and deep-fat fryer to cook chicken and other things.”
Mae Ola and Chris still laugh about his cooking experiences.
“One night he and a friend got up in the night and cooked pork chops. What they didn’t eat, they put in the refrigerator. One night his friend tried to cook sausage. It was burned, but they stuck it in the refrigerator anyway,” Westbrook said.
Her life is about to change. Three sons will be going to college this fall. In addition to Chris going to Samford, Patrick plans to go to the University of Alabama and Anthony plans to go to Northwest Alabama Community College at Phil Campbell.
“I’m going to feel lost without fixing all the meals and doing all the loads of clothes,” she said.
Her cooking has changed some through the years.
“My mother didn’t know about bought seasonings for things like dressing,” she said. “I’ve learned different things to put in food that I didn’t have when I was growing up.”
One of her daughters, Dianna’s, favorite foods is pinto beans.
“The kids ate pinto beans at a friend’s house and wanted me to cook a pot. I’ve learned to soak them before cooking,” she said.
To cook a pot of pinto beans, she uses a bag of beans (soaked and rinsed), eight cups of water, one cup of oil, one tablespoon of salt and a piece of fat back meat. Cook until beans are tender.
Her favorite meat is chicken.
“I bake, roast, boil and make chicken and dumplings. I like to fix it any way,” she said.
As with many southern cooks, she doesn’t really use a recipe. Here are some of her favorite recipes she “looks over” before she begins cooking.
ROAST CHICKEN
One frying chicken
20-30 cloves garlic, unpeeled
Four small thin-skinned potatoes, scrubbed and thickly sliced.
Salt and pepper
One chicken bouillon cube
One tsp cornstarch
Two Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
Parsley sprigs
Preparation:
Wash chicken and pat dry. Cut along one side of breast- or backbone to butterfly. Set chicken, cut side up, in a 9-inch square baking pan. Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes.
At the same time, boil two cups water. Add garlic and boil for five minutes. Drain and slip off peels. Lift out chicken. Arrange sliced potatoes and garlic cloves in pan. Set chicken, skin side up, on top. Sprinkle slightly with salt and pepper. Bake at 400 F for about one hour or until chicken is tender. Drain juices into a small pan. Cover chicken and keep hot.
Stir bouillon cube and cornstarch into lemon juice to dissolve. Add to drippings along with wine. Stir over medium heat for three minutes or until sauce boils and thickens.
Arrange chicken and potatoes on a platter. Scatter garlic over top. Spoon on lemon sauce or serve sauce alongside. Garnish with parsley sprigs.
CARROT CAKE
1 1/2 cups corn oil
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
2 cups peeled and grated carrots
1 cup chopped walnuts
I can (8 oz.) crushed pineapple
Cream cheese frosting
3/4 cup shredded coconut
Preparation:
Beat together corn oil, sugar and eggs until well combined.
In a bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cloves. Add to egg-sugar mixture, mixing well.
Drain the pineapple well. Add carrots, walnuts and pineapple to mixture. Blend to mix well.
Pour batter into greased and floured 9- or 10-inch cake pan. Bake at 350 F for about one hour or until a pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Let cake cool on rack. Prepare frosting.
Split cake into two layers.
Assemble. Cover with frosting. Sprinkle with the coconut.
Cream cheese frosting:
To make cream cheese frosting, mix two packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, one cup powdered sugar, and one teaspoon vanilla extract. Blend well.
HERB-TOMATO GRILLED CHICKEN
1 chicken, 3-3 1/2 lbs., cut up
Dash of salt
Dash of black pepper
Basting sauce
2 Tbsp oil or melted butter
3/4 cup tomato ketchup or chili sauce
2 Tbsp white wine or lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
3 Tbsp fresh chopped basil or 2 tsp dried basil leaves
Preparation:
Cut off excess fat from chicken pieces. Loosen the skin away from the meat (this helps the basting sauce to reach the meat underneath). Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.
Mix together and blend well the oil, tomato ketchup or chili sauce, wine or lemon juice, the garlic and the herbs used. Place chicken on rack. Brush both sides with basting sauce.
Grill for 12-15 minutes on one side, brushing with basting sauce from time to time.
Turn chicken over, brush again with sauce. Grill chicken for another 12-15 minutes or until chicken is done and juices run clear when pierced with a fork.
Serve immediately with crusty bread and a tossed green salad, tomatos and crispy baked potato wedges.
APPLE PIE
(This makes one pie) Crust:
2 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter
2-3 Tbsp cold water
Filling:
4 tart apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 to 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Dash ground nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 Tbsp butter or margarine
1 egg, beaten for brushing pie
Preparation:
For crust, combine flour, shortening, salt and butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Gradually stir in water, a little at a time to form a dough.
Divide pastry in half. Form each to a flat round. Wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap. Chill.
For filling, peel apples and cut into wedges. Combine sugars, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Roll out half of pastry. Fit into a 9-inch pie pan.
Place half the apples in pan.
Sprinkle with sugar. Top with remaining apples. Sprinkle with walnuts. Dot with butter.
Roll out remaining pastry. Cut into strips to make a lattice top. Brush dough with beaten egg.
Bake at 375 to 400 degrees F for 40 to 50 minutes until apples are soft and dough is lightly brown.
Serve warm or chilled with whipped cream.
